Which one is harder: Dark Souls series or The Surge?

[Prog.]

Played for a few hours and beat the first two bosses so far, just curious to know the community's opinion!

[a1gundam]

This imo. I actually beat this game except for that cat bastard in the Creo World dlc.

[Hoki]

gotta agree. surge is compared to the souls franchise a rougher experience. this makes the game harder on a technical side

[Shucks]

Im finding the surge much easier all around. I havent died much and the first 2 bosses were very easy.

[ShodaN]

I'd say the Surge series is harder, simply because it forces you to engage with its mechanics more. In Dark Souls games way too much stuff is just optional, gimmicky or downright pointless. Here and in the second one everything from combat to gear is far more deliberate. You either learn all that or end up as one of the people complaining how you cannot cancel attacks into dodges, that some enemies are faster than you or how blocking is supposedly pointless.

[Eze]

The Surge. You can get pals in Dark Souls, but not here. And bosses there are more fair and engaging. In this game bosses are complicated, you have to go trough stages in the fight, and the more you advance the more unrelenting they get.

This game still is easier than Dark Souls 3.

[p30pl3h4t3m3]

both have a learning curve, in the surge maybe a bit harder @ the beginning than in dark souls. first time in the surge every enemy feel like a black knight for me. but if you get into it and reach a point in the game(s), both become more or less easy.

[Nuriyokan]

Lmfao they said the surge is harder than the dark souls series yea ok . In the souls games you can die from anything . You never feel cautious or worried in the surge . As long as you upgrade the power core in the surge you can just easily get an armor set and weapon from simply fighting the same 1 enemy next to a save point and you only have to fight 4 times to get all the gear .

In dark souls that would be way harder to do and you can’t get OP armor from fighting one normal enemy .

The surge harder ????!!!??? That’s a joke right ? What’s challenging about the surge ? You can literally go the whole game with nothing but the pax weapon . All you need is enough core power to over load circuits so you can upgrade armor to Mark V then just go fight the boss and you win . It only takes you 20hrs or less to complete the game ......

How is dark souls easier ????? Ds is way more challenging than this garbage .

[Nuriyokan]

Originally posted by p30pl3h4t3m3:

both have a learning curve, in the surge maybe a bit harder @ the beginning than in dark souls. first time in the surge every enemy feel like a black knight for me. but if you get into it and reach a point in the game(s), both become more or less easy.

Lmfao yea right ! In ds a basic enemy can kill you in one hit . The surge you can take a few hits from regular enemies and getting gear is super easy .

[EZ_Mode_Guy]

IMO. I played many of souls-like games, the hardest is Nioh and the easiest is dark souls 1 and for the surge it's sure harder than all dark souls series.

[ShodaN]

DS is only harder for first time players. It's the cheap death and inability to know the weaknesses of many enemies and bosses that make it seem like you die a lot more. But cheap doesn't mean harder. Mechanically DS can be extremely simplified, because you can safely ignore 90% of its mechanics. That's why the "best" way to play it is to pump points mostly into ST and DEX, get a powerful weapon that can be infused and focus on dodge rolling. Armor classes, weapon classes, shields, parry, magic - neglectable gimmicks for the most part.

From Software even knew this when they made Bloodborne, where they dropped all the meaningless crap and added more weapon variety. Even better they realized how, if they want to engage the player more in their combat system, they need to shift the focus from dodging and quick attacking. Hence why so many DS players have a hard time with Sekiro, that requires real engagement with the mechanics for once.

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by ShodaN:

DS is only harder for first time players. It's the cheap death and inability to know the weaknesses of many enemies and bosses that make it seem like you die a lot more. But cheap doesn't mean harder. Mechanically DS can be extremely simplified, because you can safely ignore 90% of its mechanics. That's why the "best" way to play it is to pump points mostly into ST and DEX, get a powerful weapon that can be infused and focus on dodge rolling. Armor classes, weapon classes, shields, parry, magic - neglectable gimmicks for the most part.

From Software even knew this when they made Bloodborne, where they dropped all the meaningless crap and added more weapon variety. Even better they realized how, if they want to engage the player more in their combat system, they need to shift the focus from dodging and quick attacking. Hence why so many DS players have a hard time with Sekiro, that requires real engagement with the mechanics for once.

Still I beaten Sekiro with dodge (dash) through (and around) and attack, I used deflect just after I had defeated some 3 or 4 bosses and just to keep up the pressure and yes, I agree, you either engage and stick to the enemy or you literally do nothing, it is pointless to stay away from the enemy (less if you want to heal or use an item, then it is safe to take some distance to not get hit while using).

Those "Souls veterans" that say Sekiro is harder than Dark Souls or is unfair, they either play the tank behind a shield or with friends, anyone that learned how to dodge at DS will not have much of a problem at Sekiro (and using deflect at Sekiro only makes the game a lot easier, it is super lenient in comparison to dodge at DS even when compared to dodge under 25% weight% (or under 30% at DS3) and Sekiro also have iframes for dash too.

Well, make perfect sense to me that all the reactions are there to make the game easier not harder, I say deflect is there to make the game easy as it have a 0.4s window against everything and if you hold it you can block, meaning no damage or small damage without kuro charm, if that is not "making the game easier", I dont know what it is . . . but From usually makes a way for the player to make the game easier, be it by overleveling or some mechanic the player can exploit or inviting friends to play for them or by their side.
I consider all the reactions as "rhythm reaction gimmick" but yes, I use as a tool to keep up the pressure and dont left go off the enemy as that is no need as I dont have a stamina bar to care about.

I also already saw a couple of complaints (or more) from Sekiro vets at the forum that bosses combo-kill you, or that normal enemies are unfair at Dark Souls as you can not just keep attacking . . .

In short, it is playing wrong (or bad, be it by lack of skills or mechanics knowledge) at the game that makes it hard, not the game that is hard.

I would say, The Surge series is on par with the Souls series and Sekiro, but for different reasons and all these are fair and not as hard as they look at first, just require some game knowledge, patience and a min amount of commitment.

[Jakuzi]

dark souls by so much

[EZ_Mode_Guy]

Originally posted by Jakuzi:

dark souls by so much

which one?

[balmora pete]

I think this is harder than Dork Souls 1 or 2. Mostly because enemies have badly telegraphed attacks that are harder to see than most. It's hard in a bad way.

[M.V.Petra]

I never really played the From/Ninja games because the whole "game that's specifically designed to make you frustrated and annoyed" thing never really hooked me for some reason. I think I played like the demo for the Surge at one point around its release and didn't actually pick it up until a couple years later, and just gave it a shot. I don't even think I remembered/knew it was supposed to be a "souls-like" but I've been enjoying it. Was curious if that meant I'd enjoy Dark Souls more than I thought I would, too